Numb
by Alis Volat Propris
Summary: The numbness was slowly dissipating under her touch. She was a medic. It was her job to heal. Neji/Saku


An: One shot kinda dark. Never wrote a Neji/Saku before, so here we are.

Neji was numb. All over. Tingling senses told him limbs still existed…but he couldn't feel them. Ten Ten was dead. His world shattered, the bright lights he had felt wash over him had broken down, faded. He searched for the afterglow but there was no trace of it, of her left. There shouldn't have been this hollow feeling, because that implied that he had let her in, but it was there all the same. It burned and ached from the void she'd apparently filled, the void he hadn't realized was her. He had stood mutely, resolute as any Hyuuga, as any ninja should at such a ceremony. Countless hours spent in her company, being on her team, being her lover…

He would go home to a cold bed, an empty apartment. She had gotten him to move out of the main house. To branch out on his own. He had done it, with her. He would rise and wake for the next mission, and the routine would repeat itself over and over. What a vicious cycle, now that she was gone. Neji's heart was bleeding, though he would never know it, could never acknowledge it. As if one had words for such feelings, or could place such sorrow. Lee and Gai had been beside themselves, sobbing like idiots as usual. She wouldn't have liked that. He didn't either.

Neji entered the graveyard, the cold grey fog parting as he walked. He could sense the familiar ki of someone and grit his teeth. One Haruno Sakura, anbu medic, and apprentice to the Godaime Hokage sat beside a familiar headstone. Neji fought the sneer he felt rising to his face and planned to ignore her completely, but she glared at him fiercely eyes narrowed.

"How's it feel, now Hyuuga san?" Sakura spat.

Neji froze, feeling his fist clench. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me" Sakura retorted, rising to her feet.

"How dare you compare them. She was a hero." Neji strode forward, pearlescent eyes blazing in their fury.

"Traitor's merely a word, Neji Kun" Sakura mocked.

Neji's chakra flared, dangerously.

"Doesn't make her any less dead, does it?" Sakura trailed. His fist flew of it's own accord, and Sakura blocked it, their hands shaking from the strain.

"Do not start what you cannot finish, Haruno" Neji said, tone deathly serious.

"I didn't start this. You were the one who filed against him and then said what you did at his funeral! I thought I would return the gesture. I can see it's no less appreciated" Sakura said.

"You have no right to disrespect her" Neji told her, foot flying out, as he crouched.

"Neither did you, but it didn't stop you did it?" Sakura jumped back on defense.

"Uchiha Sasuke is a traitor to Konoha, Sakura." Neji practically growled.

"And that makes what you did right? No, I have good reason to be angry and you know it." Sakura said.

The Hyuuga family had protested him being buried in Konoha soil. Traitors deserved a traitor's death. He had told her Sasuke was a traitor at his funeral. Sakura had never forgiven him for it.

Neji launched himself at Sakura, but the substitution log disappeared. Neji honed in on her chakra and pursued. Kunai flew from his fingers, and he heard the sound of them clinking against her own and he kicked out, finding purchase on her leg. She retaliated as their taijutsu spar grew more and more serious. Veridian eyes were alight with fire. Neji was forced to activate his byakugan and the fight reached an even higher peak. Her chest heaved with exertion, his legs were quivering as he hadn't slept for the past 36 hours in light of the funeral. Adrenaline raced and shot through his veins forcing tired and fatigued limbs, pushing his limits. His hand wrapped around her throat and he pressed her hard into the tree, shaking it with his force. Her hands on his arms nearly broke the bone and forced him to release, but he found purchase on he shoulders, keeping her in place as he used his body to crush her against the tree.

"Let me go!" She snarled.

"No" He replied.

Her chest rose and fell against his, her vest zipper had slid further down in their rough fight. Her cheeks were flushed from exertion, and her eyes were alight, burning him in their intensity. Pink hair nearly hid those eyes from him and he brushed them back to see more clearly.

The touch shocked Sakura to the core. Neji hated her…but the way he was looking at her…He was so lost and alone and afraid though the harsh Hyuuga probably didn't even know it. She was paralyzed by him, lost in pearlescent eyes that looked beyond the surface, that penetrated straight to the core.

"Why do you hate me?" He whispered.

"I don't hate you." She said, surprising him. "I hate what you did" She murmured.

"I'm sorry." Neji said, apologizing for what he had done.

Knowing the pain she did, as he knew now, as he had learned from Ten Ten's passing, he could barely live with himself. What he had done had ripped her apart. He couldn't have seen that then, couldn't have understood it. Even now he was peering into a window of her world of pain. But he could grasp at it. And it hurt. And that much he understood now, was the pain.

"I know." She replied, seeing the emotions playing across his face and nodding.

It wasn't in her nature to hold grudges. Particularly not against the living. She'd learned long ago how short life was, how little time one had. Green eyes shown in acceptance, approval, empathy. Where the sympathetic looks of others at her funeral had nearly torn him asunder, that look of empathy quieted his raging spirit, his torn grief. She knew, she knew and was exactly like he was, she could have been him, in his pain so long ago at the funeral.

"Tell me something. Why can't you let him go?" Neji asked, molten silver staring into the most lovely shade of jade.

"For the same reason you don't want to let her go now. If you forget them, then they're really gone." Sakura replied and she sniffled.

She was so open, so honest. He had never been like that. Even Ten Ten hadn't been like that. Sakura wore her heart on her sleave. Her soul was bared before him, she was so vulnerable and he loved that about her in that moment. Their close proximity seemed to build something between them, something in their eyes.

"I will never forget her" He said, eyeing her.

Why he had just made such a confession he didn't know, but he was feeling something again, the twitching of his senses throwing him off kilter. The numbness was slowly dissipating under her touch. She was a medic. It was her job to heal. He hadn't expected this and he closed his eyes as he rested his bandaged forehead against hers, reveling in the touch.

"That's alright. I'll never forget him" She said, apple green pulling his chin up to look at her. "That makes us even."

"We're the same" He said, thumb brushing across her cheek.

Her hand traced his cheek as she touched the single tear that had escaped, running down his face. She showed him it. He hadn't shed a tear for years. He grabbed her hand and kissed it. Impulsive…he was being so impulsive right now. And he felt so alive, so critically aware of the entirety of her being, pressed so close against him.

His lips on her neck sent her pulse racing as his rough calloused hands trailed her body. Sakura didn't have time to comprehend what was going on. He brought those lips crushingly to hers and she kissed him back, bringing life with her.

"Come with me?" he asked. His tone was so desperate. He didn't want to be alone.

Green eyes looked deep into molten silver, that were nearly snuffed out, fading fast as he looked at her like she was his only life line. Green painted fingernails stroked his hand as she looked up at him.

"Yes" She murmured and they disappeared together in a swirl of smoke.


End file.
